Part journal, part nonsense, part sublime inspiration, wholly Faith-ful

Archive for November, 2009

We had to submit our self-assessment today at work as part of our annual performance review. How the heck do you do that? What if I’m out in la-la-land? What if I think I’m 4’s & 3’s on everything, but my manager thinks I’m 2’s and 3’s? Or worse!

You might think you’ll come out better if you rate yourself lower in some categories than you think you really deserve. But that could shoot you in the butt too. I mean, if I say I’m 2’s & 3’s, but I’m really 3’s & 4’s, what if they leave it low, figuring if I’m too dumb to know better?

I’m very much type A. I think that I can and must do everything, no matter how difficult or complicated. I learn fast, and I work fast. I’m also very impatient with things that are not quick. Ask Izzybella. We were leaving the restaurant on Friday. I’m out the door and halfway to my car, when I realized she was still just coming out of the door. She says I do that all the time. I get out of the car and I’ll be halfway down to wherever we’re headed while she’s just then shutting her car door and making sure it’s locked.

I think my friends are not ungrateful for my knee problems (not to say they’re glad of it, because they’re not because they love me despite my many idiosyncracies and they don’t want me to hurt), because for once I’m the one asking them to slow down, as I hobble painfully around the mall.

So yeah, I was the first one to submit my performance review to my boss. And yeah, I gave myself 3’s and 4’s. And you know what? Some of the 3’s I really thought should be 4’s.

Wonder what she’ll think.

Note: I just did spell-check. The word I was worried I spelled wrong wasn’t, but then I had a typo in another place. Just goes to show you.

Last night I read something that a friend had linked to on Facebook. She prefaced the link by saying that if you are a member of (my faith) or a fan of (a particular book series), and can’t laugh at yourself, don’t click the link. I appreciated the warning, but while I am of this faith, and not a fan of that book, I do have the ability to laugh at myself. So I clicked through and read the posts that had my friends laughing hysterically.

Me? I didn’t find it particularly funny. I don’t think it was a gentle poking fun at my faith, but rather a skewering of my faith combined with a crude analysis of the author’s motives and subtext in the books s/he wrote. Yes, some of the points made about the book series in question were valid, and a few of them were funny. But some of them weren’t valid, in my opinion (and anyone has the right to disagree with me), and were just ugly.

Does that mean I don’t have a sense of humour, because I can’t laugh at someone crapping all over things I hold to be sacred? I actually find a lot of things funny. In fact, I have the sense of humour of a 13-year-old boy, and frequently make jokes that completely crack me up.

If you took the context of my faith out of the material I read last night, and substituted any other group (gays, democrats, republicans), the people who oppose those groups would be saying the same thing. “Oh, they can’t laugh at themselves, but we who are not in their group find this hysterically funny.” Meanwhile, the people in those groups would be feeling a range of emotions, varying from “ha-ha, they think it’s funny and I don’t want to be classified as humourless so I’d better pretend to laugh” to “they are putting down (my group) and this cannot be tolerated! they are haters!”

The fact is that people disagree, rather a lot, and that’s okay. I resent being told, however, that if I don’t like something someone writes about my faith, that I don’t have a sense of humour, and, ergo, something is wrong with me. I’m not going to sit here and put down other people’s cherished beliefs, and disguise it under the label of humour. It’d be nice if they returned the favour.

EDITED TO ADD: I just realized that I may have come across as sounding annoyed that my friends find something humourous that I find offensive. That’s not the case at all. I apologize if I gave that impression.

Lolo, I tried, honest I did. I got up when you texted me. And Joe got up. And I summoned up my inner vampire slayer and got dressed, and went to Voldemart. And I got in there, and found you, and stood there for what, 20 minutes? And I had to get out. Joe got sidetracked by a toy he wanted to get someone, and tried to get me to stay with him. Alas, my inner vampire slayer is somewhat–is agoraphobic the right word? We shall pretend it is, if it’s not–agoraphobic, and had to bolt forthwith. A few minutes in the car and all was fine. I sat there and waited for Joe, who came out with a little more than the toy, but nothing we hadn’t discussed.

The rest of my day was fairly uneventful, and I like it that way. Spent 4 hours at work, had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with the Incomparable Izzybella (the veggie spring rolls were delicious, as was the tostada pizza). Then we moseyed over to World Market and got a few stocking stuffers for each other, and meandered through Target. This is the Target we traditionally go to on Black Friday Afternoon, as it’s pretty much as crowded (or not) as a normal Target on any given day. We also traditionally see a movie on Black Friday, and our timing was such that we decided to see “The Blind Side” because it started at the right time and because the trailers looked pretty good. The trailers were right–we both really liked the movie.

And now I’m home, really tired and wanting to sleep. I’ve got a lot of things to get done around the house this weekend, and since Joe’s home to help, I’m optimistic. No leftovers from yesterday–Joe put the turkey in along with everything else, and foolishly left it on the kitchen table while he went to wash up or something (I wasn’t home when this happened). Scout is very sly, devious, and agile, and devoured the entire box of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing & yams. Joe was cheesed off. And Scout? Well, he just keeps getting fatter and fatter.

Remember when I told you about vegan etsy’s “it’s all in the bag” holiday promotion? And how I told you that for only $25 you get a reusable tote filled with all kinds of hand-crafted samples by vegan artisans? And how your $25 is being matched by a Very Generous Anonymous Donor, and all of it is going to an animal sanctuary?

Well! Mine came on Saturday.

I just ordered another one. Because each little thing I opened has to go to someone specific, and I don’t have quite enough just yet.

And you know, maybe I want a couple of things for myself.

So I think you need to go right now to vegan etsy and buy your own! (all stocking stuffers graciously accepted!) (only you’ll want to keep it all because they’re all so cool) (and they’re worth every penny of that $25 plus the $25 being donated by the VGAD and at least another $25 for sheer coolness) (and they’re vegan and you don’t have to read the labels) (and all the artists put in their cards and offer nice discounts and you will totally want to support them)

Got Something to Say?

Feel free to email me at chauceriangirl(at) gmail (dot) com, if you'd like to say something but don't feel like leaving a comment on the blog.

"You can get sympathy or you can get better, but you can't get both. You can be in your comfort zone or you can have growth, but you can't have both. You can be interested or you can be sold-out committed, but you can't entertain both. You can have excuses or have results, but you can't do both. Choose the path that develops your visceral fortitude." ---Mario Cortes

Email Subscription

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.